The need to equip aircraft, in particular commercial aeroplanes, with flight data acquisition and recording units has always been acknowledged, as these are invaluable in technical and scientific investigations following an air crash, to determine the direct and indirect causes of the crash, so that technical, human, and procedural steps can be taken to prevent it happening again.
Current international regulations therefore require that any aircraft over 5,700 kg (12,500 pounds) in weight be equipped with a so-called “Flight Data Recorder” for recording flight and navigation data; and a so-called “Cockpit Voice Recorder” for recording the pilots' voices and on-board radio communications. (Normally, both these devices are integrated in a so-called “black box”).
The recording devices (black boxes) normally used on commercial aeroplanes, however, are extremely expensive, and are difficult to install and even redundant in the lower aircraft range (i.e. craft of a total weight below 5,700 kg). Moreover, modern black boxes are difficult to install in existing older-generation aircraft, for reasons involving both wiring and the source of the data involved. Another important point to bear in mind is the continual increase in the amount of flight data to be recorded, with update costs that are not readily affordable. As a result, flight safety agencies are unable to definitely determine the causes of crashes involving older-generation or small aircraft not equipped with black boxes for the reasons given above.
Various solutions to the above problems have been proposed, such as the system described in Patent Application JP2002087393, which provides for acquiring and recording a sequence of aircraft control panel images. More specifically, the system comprises a video camera installed in the cockpit to cover the control panel; and a recording device, which is connected to the camera, and stores a sequence of control panel images in a bulk storage device.
Patent Application JP9307849 proposes an aircraft flight data acquisition and recording unit comprising a CCD video camera installed in the cockpit to cover the control panel; and a recording device, which is connected to the camera, stores a sequence of control panel images in a bulk storage device, and is activated by a switch controlled by a crash sensor and an alarm-status sensor.
Patent Application JP5155393 proposes an aircraft flight data acquisition and recording unit comprising a CCD video camera equipped with a microphone and installed in the cockpit to cover the control panel; and a recording device, which is connected to the camera and microphone, and stores in a bulk storage device a sequence of control panel images, the sounds from the microphone, and various flight data acquired from the on-board instruments.
The above systems, however, have all proved to be of little assistance in technical and scientific investigations into air crashes.